I’m rather disappointed that one of them, Des Moines County, is not one of the ones available, but I am thankful for an associated site the Iowa Gravestones Photo Project. I’ve visited it many times too, and even added some grave photos we have taken over the years.

With thousands of genealogy blogs out there, I certainly don’t expect all of them to visit my blog every day. Some may never visit here, and I may never visit theirs. And you know what? That’s OK.

I don’t write posts for traffic (although I do appreciate my readers immensely) or even tons of comments. The reason I write is to create a collection of my posts for posterity. I use Tabbloid to save them in PDF format where they go into a special file folder named :::surprise::: iPentimento as Tabbloid. I may put them on my external drive someday, but currently they reside on my desktop. Tabbloid converts all the text and photos included in the articles and makes it look like a magazine.

When I write an article about a surname I always include it in the post title, and have post tags for the search engine bots to find. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from a cousin or made a new friend just because they “found” my post while doing a search.

Lastly, I’m not in any specific category of genealogy or history blog writer. I’ve learned to use a WordPress self-hosted blog platform by trial and error. If you had to put me in some niche, I suppose it could be a gen-geek. I love plugins that make my life easier; technology is fascinating to me and I use as much of it as I can afford. I try not to fall back on making excuses for sporadic articles because I have fibromyalgia, but it is a big factor in how I feel each day. It doesn’t define me though. I write about genealogy to take my mind off any pain I might be feeling that day.

Seriously, what would our lives be without music? Without delving into all of the dynamics of it, I would just say that it is a wonderful gift humans have been given to hear and enjoy music at any time of year. We’re able to give voice to our feelings, especially at Christmas time when it’s the tradition to sing Christmas Carols. You would expect me to say that though, wouldn’t you, since my name literally means “Joyous Song”.

It’s entirely possible that I’m wrong, but I chose this particular carol (Carol of the Bells) because it reminds me of my brother singing in chorus when he was at Tumwater High School. He can leave a comment here and correct me if necessary, but I think he sang bass and it could have been that this is one of the songs they sang. OK Dave, put your thinking cap on and tell us!

Shades of the Departed

If you’re looking for a good top-notch history, genealogy and photography blog to read, please visit Shades of the Departed. My friend footnote Maven is a fellow Washington state blogger whom we all thoroughly adore.